pursuitofnerdiness:

greencarnations:

npr:

Let’s begin with a choice.

Say there’s a check in the mail. It’s meant to help you run your household. You can use it to keep the lights on, the water running and food on the table. Would you rather that check be for $9,794 or $28,639?

It’s not a trick question. It’s the story of America’s schools in two numbers.

That $9,794 is how much money the Chicago Ridge School District in Illinois spent per child in 2013 (the number has been adjusted by Education Week to account for regional cost differences). It’s well below that year’s national average of $11,841.

Why America’s Schools Have A Money Problem

Map: Alyson Hurt and Katie Park/NPR
Illustration: LA Johnson/NPR
Photo: Tim Lloyd/St. Louis Public Radio

The TL;DR is that it’s because of the way local school funding is tied to local taxes and only local taxes.

If you ever want to spend some time gettin REAL mad, ponder on this for a while: if you’re a child in this country, your education is funded based off local taxes, mostly property taxes. The value of you and your education is directly tied to the value of your family’s house.

More people need to know this! I had this realization in college and it turned me from a little libertarian shit into a baby progressive.